Duck Amuck
Duck Amuck is a 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. Plot Daffy Duck is a musketeer in a medieval setting, who boldly acts out an action scene with a fencing foil. As he thrusts the foil and advances, the background abruptly is left plain white. Confused by this, Daffy turns to the animator and asks him to complete the background. He walks off the screen, and the animator fills in a new background that has nothing to do with the previous scene. Daffy returns and starts to repeat his opening scene, but quickly notices the different background and leaves, returning in a different costume and altering his performance to match the new scene. The animator substitutes several different, unrelated backgrounds, each time prompting Daffy to change costumes until the background finally disappears completely. Daffy then tries to reason with the animator. While he's talking, the animator erases him completely, then redraws him as a cowboy with a guitar. Daffy tries to play it but gets no sound. Holding up a sign asking for sound, his next attempts result in several random sound effects. Daffy also finds himself generating random sound effects for a moment before finally shouting angrily at the animator, demanding some new scenery. The animator draws a simple line-art background, then when Daffy asks for some color, paints Daffy himself in a bunch of random colors and patterns. Daffy angrily yells, "NOT ME, YOU SLOP ARTIST!!", and the animator quickly erases his body and redraws him as a bizarre mismatched animal with a "screwball" flag on its tail and a flower shaped head. Daffy walks around and talks to himself if he wasn't living up to his contract and soon becomes suspicious of this form, before the animator draws a mirror nearby and reveals his form and he scolds the animator for making him hideous and in respond, the animator erases Daffy and the mirror. Daffy is redrawn as a sailor, and as he begins to sing "The Song of the Marines", the animator draws an ocean background around him, without a boat. Daffy promptly falls into the water and emerges on a distant island. He asks for a closeup, then the camera crops out everything save for one small bit. Daffy annoying responds "You call this ''a closeup?", then the camera zooms in to Daffy's angry eyes. As he tries once again to negotiate with the animator, a black curtain falls on him. The animator draws a stick for Daffy to hold it up but it breaks and Daffy screams hysterically and rips apart the background, then becomes even more frustrated when he tries to say the episode needs to start. A "THE END" card appears, causing Daffy to yell "No...NO!" and pushes the end card away from the screen. Daffy apologizes to the presumed audience and dances for a moment while the film goes out of alignment, resulting in two Daffy Ducks on the screen. The two argue with each other and start to get in a fight, but the animator erases one of them just as the other takes a swing. Daffy is then drawn into an airplane, which he excitedly flies around in until a mountain is drawn in his path. The plane crashes off-screen, resulting in Daffy flying on his own with only the windshield in front of him. He "bails" out of the remains of his plane and floats downward with a parachute, which the animator replaces with an anvil. Crashing to the ground, Daffy is seen hammering on the anvil while dizzily reciting "The Village Blacksmith". The animator replaces the anvil with an artillery shell, which explodes after being struck by the hammer four times. After the explosion, Daffy finally snaps and angrily demands that the animator reveal himself. The animator draws a door in front of Daffy and closes it on him, then the camera draws back to reveal that the animator is Bugs Bunny at a drawing table, who says to the camera, "Ain't I a stinker?" Availability *(1985) VHS - ''Daffy Duck: The Nuttiness Continues... from the Warner Bros. Cartoons Golden Jubilee 24 Karat Collection *(1999) VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 2: Running Amuck *(2003) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc Two *(2011) DVD - ''The Essential Daffy Duck'', ''Disc 1 *(2011) Blu-ray/DVD - ''Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc One *(2017) Streaming - Boomerang App Influence in Other Works * The cartoon's plot was essentially replicated in one of Jones' later cartoons, "Rabbit Rampage" (1955), in which Bugs Bunny turns out to be the victim of Elmer Fudd. * The 1966 Looney Tunes short "A-Haunting We Will Go" has some gags reused from "Duck Amuck". First, Daffy is again transformed into a flower-faced spotted creature. Later, when Daffy used a parachute, the witch transforms it into an anvil (as the animator did in "Duck Amuck") and then impact in the same rock that the animator draw to stop Daffy's plane in "Duck Amuck". * The framing material for Daffy Duck's Easter Special was similar to "Duck Amuck", with Daffy once again being tortured by an unseen animator. *The Super NES video game Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage merges both premises from "Duck Amuck" and "Rabbit Rampage", the result being Bugs portrayed as Daffy's victim. * This cartoon was parodied in the last episode of the short-lived series Clerks: The Animated Series, further proving the short's lasting legacy. The final scene of the series even mirrors the ending of the original short, with Jay and Silent Bob in place of Bugs. They even considered having the ending shot in live-action with the animated characters placed in like in the short, until they have it entirely animated instead. * It was also referenced in a 30-second short cartoon gag in Johnny Bravo. * It was used in Babylon 5, in the episode "Conflicts of Interest", where Michael Garibaldi is listening to it. This was used for ironic effect as at the time Garibaldi himself is unknowingly being manipulated by a seemingly omnipotent force. * In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode "Complete and Utter Chaos!", Grim is transformed into the same flower-faced and spotted creature that Daffy is turned in to. He even says Daffy's catchphrase, "You're despicable!" * On the original VHS release of Batman and Beetlejuice, a short ad for Warner Bros. merchandise was shown featuring both Daffy and Bugs. Throughout the ad, an unseen animator "draws" items such as T-shirts, movie books, and posters (and in classic fashion, when Bugs mentions ties, the animator draws a rope around Bugs, effectively tying him up, to which he response, "that's NECK-ties!"). In the end, Daffy begins to lose his cool, ending in his being erased from the ad by the animator. * Robert Smigel did a similar cartoon in his weekly TV Funhouse segment on SNL, where Michael Powell, FCC Chairman at the time, played Daffy Duck and Howard Stern played Bugs Bunny. * In Looney Tunes Comics (DC) Issue #94, Bugs Bunny gets back at Daffy Duck by making him the victim, in switching various movie roles, from Duck Twacy in "Who Killed Daffy Duck," a video game character, and a talk show host, and they always wound up with Daffy starring in Moby Dick (the story's running gag). After this, Bugs comments, "Eh, dis guy needs a new agent." ** Issue 231 (Duckier and Amuckier) and many comics (Comic Relief) show similar plots. * The Baby Looney Tunes episode "Duck's Reflucks" uses a similar plot with Bugs as the victim and Daffy as a computer animator. * In the first segment of The Simpsons episode "Tales from the Public Domain", Homer's ship appears on a map and gets flicked by Poseidon (The Sea Captain), who is standing over the map. He then turns to face the audience and says, "Yarr...Ain't I a stinker?" * Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck is a video game released for the Nintendo DS in 2007 based off this cartoon, while incorporating elements from several others, such as "Robin Hood Daffy". Nintendo Power magazine briefly describes the game in June 2007's issue "try to drive Daffy Duck stark raving mad." * The New Looney Tunes episode, "One Carroter in Search of an Artist", is a similar plot to both "Duck Amuck" and "Rabbit Rampage" where Bugs Bunny is the victim and the animator is Daffy Duck, who finally gets his revenge on him. * In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "You Asked For It" the segment "Duck out of Luck" has a similar plot with Plucky as Daffy and the viewers as Bugs. * In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "The Looney Beginning", many moments in the creation of Babs and Buster Bunny reference the Looney Tunes short, "Duck Amuck." Notes *The Bugs Bunny short "Rabbit Hood" contains a title card similar to this short. *This short marks one of many of the instances where Daffy consistently breaks the 4th wall by asking the unknown animator (Bugs) and the audience about the change of scenery. *This short was considered for an Academy Award in 1952, but was not nominated. http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1952/ Cartoon Research - Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award -- 1952 *The short airs with PAL speed and audio on Turner networks in the USA. PAL is used in most European countries, but the post-1948 cartoons that come from the VHS originally were released in European countries and the USA Turner networks uses the VHS prints. In this case, "Duck Amuck" came from the Warner Bros. Cartoons Golden Jubilee 24 Karat Collection VHS.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMes-H21pc *"Duck Amuck" is included in the compilation film, The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie, along with other Chuck Jones cartoons. *In 1994 it was voted #2 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, behind only "What's Opera, Doc?".http://mubi.com/lists/the-50-greatest-cartoons-as-selected-by-1000-animation-professionals *According to director Chuck Jones, the cartoon demonstrated for the first time that animation can create characters with a recognizable personality, independent of their appearance, milieu, or voice. Although in the end, the animator is revealed to be Daffy's friend and rival Bugs Bunny (who famously declares "Ain't I a stinker?"), according to Jones the ending is just for comedic value: Jones (the director) is speaking to the audience directly, asking "Who is Daffy Duck anyway? Would you recognize him if I did this to him? What if he didn't live in the woods? Didn't live anywhere? What if he had no voice? No face? What if he wasn't even a duck anymore?" In all cases, it's obvious that Daffy is still Daffy; not all cartoon characters can claim such distinctive personality. *In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. This was the second of three animated shorts by Jones to receive this honor (the others are 1957's "What's Opera, Doc?" and 1955's "One Froggy Evening"). Jones has the distinction of being the only director (as of 2006) with three animated shorts in the registry. *A photo of an animation desk was used during Bugs' revelation scene. Gallery Ltajmm-10.png Farmer Daffy "Duck Amuck".png Duck_Amuck.jpg DaffyFlowerface.jpg|Daffy as a weird flower headed creature Duck Amuck.gif|Daffy Duck and the black blob 2B0937AB-4D50-4586-A837-DA4B0055BF3C.jpeg References External links * *[http://keyframeonline.com/Animation/Duck_Amuck/537/ Duck Amuck] at Keyframe - the Animation Resource *''Duck Amuck'' on the SFX Resource Wiki Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:1953 Category:Shorts Category:Bugs Bunny Chuck Jones Category:The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie Cartoons Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Cartoons animated by Al Pabian